The ultraportable, relatively low
cost ASUS Eee PC made a big splash since its debut. Offered at a sub-$300 price
point in its simplest configuration and available from a large number of
distributors, including big consumer stores like Best Buy, the Eee has carved
out a niche for inexpensive subnotebooks that other manufacturers are now
rushing to help fill. Recently they've expanded their product line with a 4G
model that includes Windows XP pre-installed and, astonishingly, lists at the
same sticker price as the Linux version ($399). Once again, let's delve into
the Eee and examine what the Windows XP environment does for us.

What do I get?

If you haven't seen our previous articles
on the Eee, there are many additional product and screen shots in those reviews.
Here, we will primarily focus on the differences due to the Windows XP
operating system.

The hardware in the 4G and 4G XP is
identical. However, this time around, ASUS has thrown a few more goodies in the
box: a small optical mouse and a 4GB SDHC card for additional storage space.

What's
this - warranty no longer "void if removed"?

Another minor tweak, as pointed out
in the memory photo, is that the "Warranty void if removed" sticker
over the access panel is gone, replaced with a rather useless "Eee PC"
sticker. Other than that, the hardware and specifications are identical to the
original 4G, and we won't rehash them here, other than some discussions of the
processor later on.

Not so much. I was hoping computers like the EEE and the OLPC would help push linux but all these companies are quickly finding that it's easier to just ship with windows. Your customers like it, your developers like it and it's already been tested and proven so that saves on RnD. Maybe they still will help push linux in the long run but it sure doesn't seem like it for now.

The EEE 900 with the bigger screen, even if it's more friendly to those older games it will come with a major drawback of even lower frame rates. Don't forget that. What the EEE needs is more power, for less power. Reply

Microsoft recently posted a video to their Ch9 website, of work they'd done to reduce the disk footprint on smaller systems. They demonstrated fully functional XP AND Office-2003 installed in 1.2GB of disk, on an EEE Reply

In regards to the Diablo 2 benchmark, the eeepc doing 25-30 fps is normal. D2 was capped at that for single player mode, which judging by the screenshots is how the game was benchmarked. More than likely it would perform better played on bnet. Reply